Newsboy hat!

I have a good friend who opened an etsy shop recently. I have made both of her patterns she has out now, and I just love them. The first was the little boys ties that I made for Christmas. The most recent one is the newsboy hat pattern. I just love these hats and they are gender neutral so maybe I'll make the girls some too. I'm glad Clark is an easy going baby and leaves the hat on his head ;)

Here's the finished hat:


It's blue corduroy with light blue top stitching. Blue matches almost everything for boys...

But the best part is that it's reversible! I did a red plaid pattern for the other side.

One of the reasons I made the hat was because in TX the weather changes so much and you never know when those 70 degree days will hit - like yesterday :). We wait for the kids to get out of school everyday on our picnic blanket on front lawn (unless it's too cold, or too hot). I figured I would try to keep his bald little head covered from all that awesome sun. It worked really well too!

If you are interested in the pattern it is super easy with great detailed instructions! I finished it in one night after the kids had gone to bed. I highly recommend the pattern and I'm looking forward to making more hats!

Insider info: I also know she is in the finishing up another pattern ... looking forward to that one too :).

Happy Sewing!

7 Months!

Our Baby Clark just keeps growing. He really is a great baby too. I feel blessed that he's calm and really enjoys hanging out in this crazy busy life he's part of!

Most recent stats (estimated by Mommy):
Weight - 23 lbs
Length - 29 1/2 inches!

He's such a big boy and trying to outgrow his 12 month clothes already! I am not ready for him to be so big so soon! He is also doing great at eating. He eats 2 meals a day and his new goal is to figure out how to get the Cheerios into his mouth by himself.

He still loves sucking his finger too :).


Loves the water... can't quite tip it all the way up by himself yet.

Yummy Cheerios! I love how he sticks his tongue out when he's ready for another Cheerio. He hasn't bit my hand yet.

More Cheerios, please! You can see his 2 teeth in this picture too ;)

He's also working on crawling, but not quite there. It looks like we have another month or so before he'll be mobile. Well, unless he's in the walker... he's good at moving all over the house in that thing :). Looking forward to more fun as he keeps growing!

Lunch Time

Here's just a view of my cute kids during lunch :).

Mhari


Sandra

Grant

Talmage

Clark

Just because Mhari wanted another picture taken of her ;)

They are fun kids. This is just part of what life is like. Kids eating, Clark in the walker, Mhari wanting her picture taken, cleaning up the lunch, having quiet time. One day I'm sure I'll miss the routine of making lunch for my kiddos. It's something I feel like I do everyday, but one day they won't need me there to help with lunch... it's strange when they start growing up!

My 1st Dress

A while back I got some patterns from the store. I had this really cute dress pattern that I had wanted to make. Well, I had a baby between now and then and I wasn't ready to make a dress until I was thin enough to wear it. When my mom was in town during Dec she bought me the material I wanted for my pattern. OK, pressure on: I had to make it, it had to fit, and my mom wanted to see a picture of me in it so it had to be good enough to actually wear, not just fit. I had enough projects for Christmas so this was on the list for the new year.

I would like to report that I did it :). This is my first dress I have made for myself... well, finished anyway.

It's hard to tell how hard the pattern was (Simplicity, ya right!) because of the dress material. I'll try to show some of the tricky parts:

Here is the collar. My first collar. I was prepared to learn this part and figured this might be the hardest part of the dress. It's kind of a bad picture, but it also has a v neck line which I wanted to look nice too.

This is a picture of the side zipper. It's kind of at an angle since I was taking the picture :). This was another thing I had never done. Back zippers aren't that bad, but I didn't know how much harder it would be doing it on the side. I survived, and the zipper works!

The last thing that was tricky about this dress was the skirt. I didn't realize when I got the pattern that the skirt has 8 gores, or triangle inserts, to sew! I had to line them up and be sure there was no puckering when it was all sewn. The last thing I did was serge the seams. There are a lot of seams in the skirt and if I didn't serge it they would eventually unravel, ruining all of my work! I think I need to invest in my own serger - Thanks Amanda for letting me use yours!

I took the picture of the skirt inside out so you could get a feel for how the triangles look. It's a really full skirt though. I used almost all 6 yards of material for this dress! I like twirly skirts ;)

Overall, I learned a lot, and I ended up with a new church dress too! Thanks Mom for the material and believing that I could do it! Jeff even likes the dress - that's always a bonus :). Now, what to do when I lose more weight and the dress doesn't fit?

OK, and just because I couldn't do a post about my dress and not show other cute pictures:

Clark likes to reach, and really likes the computer. It's always funny to see babies act like they know how to use technology!

Free time?

In all of his "free time" Jeff finished some wood projects the other day :). First, he made my Christmas present. It's a necklace holder. The frame is larger than 8X10 and looks really nice. He painted it black and added the hooks. We will be putting a mirror in the middle instead of the blank opening :). It has enough room for my long necklaces to hang and not get tangled! I love it!



Jeff also made a tie rack for himself. He cut up a dowel rod and made the holes and then glued them in. I'm sure he could explain it better than me :). He painted it black also.

Here it is with ties. He has it almost all filled now. It's great for his ties to have a home :)

And just because I wanted to update on Sandra... She recovered really well and went back to school Monday. After school Mhari was trying to find her so I went around helping her. We found her cuddled up in bed sleeping :). Going back to school can be exhausting!

It's nice to have some projects done :).

Today...

It has been a busy day. Clark is congested and didn't sleep well. I was dragging this morning without a good night's sleep. An hour after the kids had gone to school I got a call from the nurse, Sandra was sick and needed to be picked up :(. I was not ready, the baby was not ready, and neither was Mhari. It took us a little longer, but Sandra was retrieved, the girls watched a movie, I took a shower. I still wanted to crawl back into bed, but decided to do something with my day...

First we had lunch - it was a long morning so far. Clark was walking in the walker and found the recycle. It was very cute.

Growing up too fast :)

Then I decided there was a room waiting to be cleaned and rearranged. I have been putting it off for some time. I guess there are several rooms in my house that make that list. I did a closet yesterday and today was the girls room. Here is the before picture:

For the after picture Sandra had already crawled into her bed to sleep :). I hope they can keep up with the room now that it's been cleaned out.

The dresser and desk got switched around and the room feels much better. I still need to clean out their desk and make them go through their animals. Fun times ahead with that project ;).

Here is Baby after a nap. He has started to play with the animals in his bed. By play, I mean, chew on ;).

It's been a good crazy day. I ended up getting out to the store when Jeff got home so that was good too. Taking kids to the grocery store is fun enough, let alone having a sickie too.

Just figured I'd share some of reality - not always glamorous, but that's the way it really is :).

Homemade!

For Christmas we trade names with our siblings families. For the past several years we have made their gifts. First, this is great because usually it saves on cost, second it's great because I feel like I'm doing something more personal for the family. I have made denim picnic blankets, wooden names, and an FHE board. This year the theme ended up being hand bags and ties.

Here are the bags for his two oldest daughters. I did a nicer pattern for them since they are teenagers and will probably use their bags for more daily use. I made my own pattern for the adult ties and I think it turned out well. I used this fabric for all the ties. Jeff's brother's family has 4 boys and so their family got lots of ties - baby ties, kid ties, and daddy tie! It was a good experience making the ties - a new skill to use :).

I think the red bag is my favorite of all the ones I made. I just love the flower material!

Here are the bags for his younger daughters. I also made 2 of these bags for Jeff's brother's family for the wifey and their daughter. I totally forgot to take pictures of their gifts :(. I also made my girls each a bag like this. I just love this pattern! I think it's totally cute and it was really easy to make - 1 in less than an hour!

My sister-in-law didn't need a bag so I had to figure out what else I could make. I love wearing an apron when I cook (not that mine is cute or anything) and I figured she might enjoy having one. My other SIL gave me the idea for this pattern. It was really simple to make, it's just a square, but I think it turned out super cute. I should have taken the picture with someone wearing it. I just didn't want to be the model ;)

Sometimes the presents end up being lots of work. Then adding that to my crazy December with 3 birthdays and an anniversary does seem a bit much. I do try to get them done early so it's not so hectic, but overall I really have enjoyed making these gifts. It pushes me to do something new. I have to get different ideas, plus I make something that I need to turn out rally nice, not just okay. I hope everyone enjoyed their presents. . . some of them were hard to give away ;)

Happy Birthday Tiger!

Since the girls have nicknames the boys have been trying to come up with their own nicknames for Daddy to call them. Grant has decided that he is "Tiger". Tiger had his birthday last week and is now 7! Wow, where has the time gone?

Here he is with his cake.


Make a wish!

Opening presents!

Grandma and Grandpa gave him a set of scriptures with his name on them. We use 7 as the year to prep for baptism and encourage our kids to read the Book of Mormon before 8. He is doing great so far! His scriptures was one of his favorite presents :)

All the presents - animals and toys from siblings, books, coloring books, disc shooter, and watch from parents. He was very happy :)

Happy Birthday to our awesome Grant. He is such a great boy and is super talented and creative. He makes our family funner and much more entertaining ;). He loves being a big brother and especially loves our baby Clark! He does great at school and enjoys playing with his friends!

We love you!